Molecular epidemiology, phylogenetic analysis and genotype distribution of hepatitis B virus in Saudi Arabia: Predominance of genotype D1.

Molecular epidemiology, phylogenetic analysis and genotype distribution of hepatitis B virus in Saudi Arabia: Predominance of genotype D1. Infect Genet Evol. 2019 Oct 18;:104051 Authors: Al-Qahtani AA, Pourkarim MR, Trovão NS, Vergote V, Li G, Thijssen M, Abdo AA, Sanai FM, Dela Cruz D, Bohol MFF, Al-Anazi MR, Al-Ahdal MN Abstract Despite the implementation of various vaccination programs, hepatitis B virus (HBV) poses a considerable health problem in Saudi Arabia. Insight on HBV evolutionary history in the region is limited. We performed a comprehensive epidemiological and phylogenetic reconstruction based on a large cohort of HBV infected patients. Three hundred and nineteen HBV-infected patients with different clinical manifestations, including inactive and active chronic carriers and patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), were enrolled in this study. The full-length large S gene was amplified and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to determine the genotype and subgenotypes of the isolates. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that genotype D is the most dominant genotype among patients. Moreover, this analysis identified two strains with genotype E isolated from active carriers. Detailed phylogenetic analyses confirmed the presence of four HBV D subgenotypes, D1 (93%, n = 296), D2 (0.02%, n = 5), D3 (0.003%, n = 1), and D4 (0.003%, n = 1). In addition, six genotype D strains were n...
Source: Infection, Genetics and Evolution - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Infect Genet Evol Source Type: research